About

About the National Magazine Awards

The National Media Awards Foundation (formerly National Magazine Awards Foundation) is a bilingual charity dedicated to promoting excellence in journalism and visual creation. Since 1977, the Foundation has been awarding prizes to journalists, photographers, illustrators and other professionals of the magazine press, who are distinguished by the quality of their work. Through its awards program, the Foundation promotes the development of healthy journalism by encouraging both seasoned professionals and the next generation to continue their vital work for our society.

The Foundation produces two distinct and bilingual award programs: the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. Throughout the year, the NMAF actively promotes the winning creators and publications through a targeted mass media publicity effort, group marketing efforts and through its website, which hosts an extensive collection of award-winning articles.

Each year, the National Magazine Awards program receives over 1,000 submissions from nearly 200 different Canadian magazines featuring thousands of literary artists. Approximately 56% of all entries are from Ontario; 18% are from western Canada; 20% are from Quebec; the Atlantic provinces represent 1% and northern Canada 1%. Nearly 15% of all submissions are French-language entries.

In adjudicating the submissions, the program’s 110 volunteer judges award nominations to approximately 200 notable entries, which represent over 80 different magazines and more than hundreds of Canadian artists.

A eighteen-member volunteer board of directors drawn from all regions and facets of the Canadian magazine industry governs the NMAF.

History

In 1976 Andrew MacFarlane, Dean of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), was trying to revive the university’s recently defunct President’s Medal for Canadian Magazine Journalism. His original idea was to create a new award divided into English and French counterparts. But MacFarlane eventually developed a proposal for a series of magazine awards, whose salient features were that the program would be bilingual — and therefore truly national — and would recognize individual excellence in the many aspects of the magazine industry — writers, illustrators, editors, photographers and art directors.

MacFarlane together with John S. Crosbie, president of the Magazine Association of Canada, secured the participation of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association (CPPA), representing 193 Canadian magazines, and CPPA’s former president Michael de Pencier. MacFarlane reached out to his counterpart at Université Laval, Roger de la Garde, Alan Edmunds, head of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), and veteran newsman Pierre Berton, among others. As the collective effort began to take shape across the country, by the spring of 1977 the National Magazine Awards had developed a clear mandate.

On November 14, 1977, National Magazine Awards Foundation received its charter of non-profit foundation status from the Province of Ontario.

The first awards

There were more than 1300 entries to the first National Magazine Awards for the year 1977. 62 judges evaluated the entries and awarded winners in 14 categories. The first National Magazine Awards gala was held on Thursday, May 11, 1978 at the Hotel Toronto.

Pierre Berton emceed the event, where the 660 guests dined and danced to Jack Collins and his five-piece band. Before presenting the awards, Berton proclaimed to the audience, “In a bold departure from tradition, there are to be no thank you speeches. We can do that because we are giving money, not some cheap statuette.” True to his word, if any winner started to talk on stage, Berton reportedly waved a large hook in the speaker’s direction.

Awards were handed down in 14 categories (with separate French- and English-language winners for the President’s Award for General Magazine Articles). 11 different magazines won awards. The NMAF also honoured outstanding achievement by a magazine: L’Actualité (French) and Harrowsmith (English) took the awards.

Magazine of the Year

Each year the National Magazine Awards concludes with the naming of Canada’s Magazine of the Year. Previous winners are:

The National Magazine Awards has a total of 29 awards categories and 2 special awards.

The submissions process for the National Magazine Awards is open from December 1 until the second week of January. Nominations are announced in April, and the awards gala is held in late May or early June.

The funding for the Awards is largely drawn from the supportive magazine community itself, through direct donations, ticket sales and submission entry fees. The Awards also rely on the generous support of recurring and new corporate sponsors through financial contributions, endorsements of the Foundation and its integral role in the Canadian magazine industry and through a wide variety of invaluable in-kind contributions.

As a non-profit organization, the Foundation strives to make the most efficient use possible of limited resources. It has a 18 member volunteer Board drawn from the media community, which together with a paid Managing Director, Communications Manager and part-time staff do the work of the Foundation.